From the wires

I go away for a few days and news of international players start hitting the wires. Chivas signs France's Laurent Merlin (man, I do love that name!), the Wizards signed Argentina's Carlos Marinelli, RBNY is trying to get Brazilian striker Edmundo. Just like leagues worldwide and the United States itself, MLS is getting to be a very worldly place to be. How lovely. Does it seem like this is a season where a lot of this is going on? I should really do some research before I post questions like that, huh? But it feels very much to me that MLS is getting to be the international place to be. Like Disneyland, except with slightly better parking. It may not be true, but it feels true, hence, it's jam-packed with truthiness.

Oh wow, I know I'm late on this, but I just listened to the MLS anthem, and I gotta say, whatever they're on, I want some of that. Does fútbol need a theme song? Why not call the people who did the song for Enterprise and have them do something for MLS while they're at it? Yeek.

So I'm goin' out drinking with friends tonight at a bar that you know won't have MLS on for its premiere Thursday night game, but since it's an California game, I may be back in time to watch it from the comfort of my own cozy gamer's chair. I have grand notions to liveblog a game, but I don't think this one is going to be it. My immediate call was for Dallas to win, but then a little gremlin grabbed my ear and whispered that it's LA's day. So the Galaxy by 1.

Getting my goats

Now who would have guessed that the team to make my day this weekend would be Chivas USA? The LA Goats ended up being my only bright spot this weekend, at a cost to my favorite guy and his team. Chivas whooped up on Alecko Eskandarian and FC Tornoto 2-0, and a goal and an assist by Sacha Kljestan gave me the most points of the day for my fantasy team.

Saturday was an amazingly full day for me, much fuller than a usual Saturday. Most Saturdays involve breakfast at IHOP, followed by five hours of study before 10 hours of work. Now, this past Saturday did begin with breakfast at IHOP (cheers to Amit, our waiter, who was the best and friendliest waiter-guy we've had at the IHOP since Melvin left the pancake world to sell shoes at the mall), but this week it was followed by a couple of hours at the homeless shelter helping make sure that everyone got at least one good meal and some creature comforts this week, followed by 10 hours of work that was punctuated by at least that many hours of futbol. Thankfully, MLSLive.tv is back, and for a small investment of $19.95, which beats the $50 or so for Direct Kick access (which I still can't get because I don't have digital cable) you can catch some games via computer.

I did get to watch my darling DC crash out against the Colorado Arsenal ... I mean Rapids (love the new red kits, guys!) ... on ABC, although it was at work with the sound off. (a note -- Dick's Sporting Goods Arena is still the most unfortunately named sports complext ever. The Dick? C'moooooooooon!) It looked cold, the players looked cold, the game looked cold. And Troy, Troy, Troy? Wha'happened? I didn't see any spark or dazzle out of DC, but I'm clinging to the belief that it was One Bad Game for them and I'll let it go at that. Erpen didn't do anything amazingly silly, but by that note he also didn't do anything amazingly good, either. I'm not sure about DC's new aquisition, Fred, who came on pitch when I actually had to start doing my job, although I did manage to look up to catch the "Famous Freds" montage that included Fred Flintstone. Ugh. Thanks ABC. Good goal from newguy Luciano Emilio with help from Yinka Casal, and I was waiting and waiting for another one of those that could get the draw, but it wasn't to be.

Via MLSLive.tv I was able to catch most of the Fire's victory over the Revs, and as far as I could tell it was a good game, although I tuned in too late to catch Logan Pause's goal. And I MatchTracked the rest of the games -- draws betweem RSL and Dallas and the Crew and RBNY, although it sounds like I missed good games. I have to say, I'm a little worried about RSL (did I say that? I guess I really have accepted Salt Lake into my futbol passions!) and Nick Rimando, and a little pleased with the Crew. And I missed out on the Cup rematch of LA vs. Houston, but oh well.

So. How's it look for the season? Uncertain, from my untrained-but-fangirl-adoring eye. I didn't pick out a sure thing that I'm willing to stake my playoff claim onto yet. But ahhhhhh, it's good to have futbol back, isn't it?

DC vs. Rapids afterthoughts

Crap!

More later ...

What's your fantasy, baby?

Yay! It's the Return of MLS Fantasy Fútbol! Oh, how I adore fantasy fútbol, if for no other reason than it gives me a chance to boss the players around on the computer screen. You know that scene in SpaceBalls where Dark Helmet is playing with his Princess Vespa action figure? Yes, if only I had my own MLS players' action figures, so I could put on little fantasy plays and saying things like, "And now Princess Landon, I have you in my clutches, to have my wicked way with you, the way I want to. [In high voice] No, no, go away, I hate you! And yet... I find you strangely attractive." Yeah, MLS Fantasy Fútbol is like that except not so silly.

Last year I had a fairly satisfying fantasy season. I was consistenly third in my little grouping, and I had the great luck at the start of the season of acquiring Troy Perkins cheaply, Troy Perkins who at the beginning of last season was merely the back-up guy for DC United and ended up being MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. Talk about your fantasy dollar coups. I gave Troy a pass this season, as he's now the top-priced guy. So here's the lineup of The Bouncing Soles (named for The Bouncing Souls, whose song "Olé!!" is the BEST SOCCER SONG EVER!! WHOOOOOOO! Go find it on iTunes):

Goalkeeper: RSL's Nick Rimando. He's always been a favorite keeper of mine, and last season I was torn when he sat out most of the season due to a foot injury, which let Troy rock the house. So even though I'm sad that DC sent him west, I think he's bona fide for RSL and will give them a huge hand to get them out of the rankings gutter. Dare I suspect that this will be a good year for Salt Lake? Yes, yes, I think I dare. I'm officially calling off my dislike for Salt Lake. After all, there are other teams for me to sneer at, and who will remain being sneered at no matter how many former USMNT guys they recruit. Hmph.

Defenders: Frankie Hejduk, Facundo Erpen, Alex Yi and Orlando Pérez. I know, no suprise there with Frankie, who I just adore. I bought him at the beginning of last season and had to, sadly, sell him because of his torn ACL that took him out for the whole season, no to mention the World Cup. So he's back, he's signed on with the Crew for more years, and he's going to be The Guy for Columbus ... if he doesn't get hurt again. And yes, I got Erpen again, even though by the end of last season he was really pissing me off. But like Frankie, he's a defender who scores goals, and I can't argue with that. Yi and Pérez were wild cards for me. I know Yi played only a few times for Dallas last season, but Pérez played quite a bit for Chivas, so I'm hoping some good things will come from them this year. I've decided, also, as you can tell, to call off the fatwa on Dallas. As far as regional teams go, the Wizards are my guys, but Dallas ain't so bad. I'm letting 'em on my team.

Midfielders: Christian Gómez, Sacha Kljestan, Adrian Serioux and Jack Jewsbury. I splashed out on Gómez, just because I think he rocks. In fact, I'm pretty happy with this entire Mid lineup. They're all good players, I'm under the impression that they're getting some time on the pitch this year.

Strikers: Davy Arnaud and Alecko Eskandarian. Again, no suprise that I'd buy Alecko, right? Although I'm a little leery of where he's at. FC Toronto -- untested, unknown, so my favorite guy might end up killing my whole team. Hmmm, I think I'll rethink making him captain just yet. Davy Arnaud is a stalwart player, good to have on a team.

I know, I know, no real superstars on the team yet. I was playing with the idea of trading a few, but contest be darned, most of these guys are the dolls that I want to play with. So this is how we start.

In other news:
AP has actually gone to the trouble of writing some stories here and here about the start of the 2007 MLS season. Highlights: (other than Beckham) all games will be televised this year (yay!) and seven of the 13 teams have soccer-specific stadiums. I guess that means no MLStv this year, which was great for me since I still don't have the digital channels needed on my network to get Fox Sports or EPSN in Español. But oh well, I'll have my Thursday nights on EPSN2.